Sony is taking an $8 million stake in wireless start-up ArrayComm with an eye toward offering high-speed wireless access to the entertainment giant's library of music, videos and computer games, the companies said today.

The move adds a puzzle piece--if a tentative one--in Sony's drive to revitalize its business by
refocusing on Internet distribution.

Sony could, in turn, create wireless devices
that would access the network to play games, listen to music or
watch videos, such as the device
it has already committed to creating with Palm Computing.

"Sony doesn't care what happens on the technology side. They're interested
in expanding their platform and services," said Herschel Shosteck, chief
executive of analyst firm Herschel Shosteck Associates. "So any kind of
wireless technology that can enable this is something they'll be interested in."

Sony has been moving quickly to reorganize itself around delivering content over the Net.

Late last month, the company said it will merge its separate American film,
music and online entertainment divisions into a single entity dubbed
Sony Broadband Entertainment. A separate restructuring effort will target its consumer electronics division.

In Japan, the company is moving even more explicitly into the network
business, saying today that it will provide local broadband wireless
Internet access to compete with the dominant local phone company.

The ArrayComm investment pushes the company a step closer toward having a
relationship with network operators in the United States.

"Sony's investment...represents an opportunity for us to propel the
development of a technology that will enable the delivery of new, media-rich
wireless services built around our own core content and technologies," said
Yang Hun Lee, executive vice president at Sony Corp. of America.

The funds also mark a long step forward for the ambitious ArrayComm, a
wireless infrastructure firm that offers technology it says can dramatically improve download
speeds in wireless networks.

Headed by Martin Cooper, the former Motorola executive who led that
company's development of the first mobile phones, ArrayComm has outlined
plans to create a nationwide data network with the help of media and mobile
phone carrier partners. That high-speed network will be used to distribute
digital products such as movies or music, Cooper has said.

Sony's investment, along with another $7 million from Amerindo Investment
Advisors and Ballentine Capital Partners, provides the first link in that
chain.

But to realize the full ambition will be far more expensive. ArrayComm still
must follow through on promises to sign a mobile phone carrier that can construct its wireless infrastructure and that will have the wireless spectrum needed to carry services such as connecting to Sony's content.